Ashford Tettey Oku shares his excitement on a successful league

Premier League Board chairman, Ashford Tettey Oku has expressed his delight about the 2015/16 Ghana Premier League season which ended on Sunday. Ashford supervised the organization of the top flight division for the first time as chairman of the PLB after taking over from Welbeck Abra Appiah.

In what has become the norm that precedes the start of every season, Ashford's regime also encountered a prolonged pre season or a delayed start of the league due to the routine board room battles. After the off field chaos, the league kicked off with great euphoria and came to a closure with a major surprise as Wa All Stars defied the odds to become the champions; the first club from the north to attain that achievement.

Ashford believes his work speaks better for him than a self assessment. "If you ask me to rate my tenure then you are asking me to set the script and mark it myself. I will not be in a position to do that. It is for the clubs and the public to do that judgement. "But the result are all there for all to see. We started from a very difficult position, the absence of a headline sponsor but we've been able to put through and it is a successful end to seven months of exciting and competitive competition".

The PLB boss revealed to Pulse.com.gh some areas of his personal pride about the league. He said "It's a lot. The kind of collective effort we put in as members of the board, am excited. The kind of performances the teams put up, am excited. The kind of support from the fans, am excited".

The former administrative manager of Hearts of Oak reckons the PLB has outsmart their doubters for ensuring a successful premier league season. He also asserts that the PLB is able to bring some creativity in the running of the league despite their modus operandi coming from the statutes of the GFA.

"The point is that the PLB's job is already cut out. We work within the statutes so we work step by step. Where we need to make recommendation to the FA we do it so over time adding experience together we've been able to do something. If we want to be honest, we run a league for seven months, there were very consistent set of fixtures and we have finished. When we started people thought we were not going to finish but we've been able to finish and I think we have a little more time to do a review.

"Members have always been creative. The statutes are just to guide us. We have not been put in a straight jacket. We work within the statutes and go beyond as much as possible to make all sort of suggestions. For instance the decision to crown Wa Al Stars in Sekondi we decided to do it and the FA gave us their support so PLB have been creative" he said.

He has earmark two issues of top priority requiring improvement to propel the league to a higher frontier. "Money is the life blood of everything. We are looking at a league that will be better resourced both at the administrative level and at the club level so things will be easier and smarter. We are also looking at developing or improving on the human resource base especially when it comes to officiating and all those things.

"Those are two issues because you come out of your house to enjoy good football, good officiating, be happy, go and come back another time". On the Wa All Stars fairytale, Ashford paid his compliment and affirmed his confidence in their credibility as champions capable of staging a good campaign in the CAF Champions League next season.

"Wa All Stars are the champions of Ghana. They played thirty matches alongside others. They had the better results, they had everything working for them so they are the champions. As a nation or as an association we have to support our champions. "They have enough time to prepare and so we need to look at where we all will come together to support them. Every club in Africa start a competition with the aim to win but is about preparation so they also have the same chance. If they organize themselves they can do better".